Firelight
by veronica.toon.7
Summary: Post movie: It has been a month since the battle with the Pure Ones had been won, yet Soren is still haunted by the personal battle with his brother. Every time he closes his eyes, he still sees the haunting image of the fire, the flames and his brother's death. Yet can it be that fire which had scarred him can also heal his wounds?


**Help, I am getting ideas out of nowhere and get the urge to do them immediately. I must have dreamer's disease! Nooooo, oh okay, whatever. So, my random out of the blue idea this time was of Soren thinking about his brother Kludd and what happened to him during the fight. I was considering the effect Soren might have, since he witnessed Kludd's death into the flames and he was the one trying to help him out.**

 **I do not Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, its content, or the cover image. They all belong to their rightful owners.**

 **Enjoy the story!**

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Soren had heard the phrase ' _time heals all wounds'_ before, but he had come of lately to realize the notion behind it. Grief was the wound and time was many long nights pondering and mourning.

Every time he shut his eyes, a fresh image of the flames came to mind. His beak grinded in agony as the pictures haunted him, every time he closed his eyes or was reminded by it from a certain trigger, such as an object or word. For almost a month he had been experiencing this fearful imaginings, all because of that time a little while ago that had burned its way into his mind.

The flames licking up to the sky, devouring the trees and plant life as they soon burned and became nothing more, but soot and ashes. Fear and agony coursed through him like a flood, raging swiftly as it covered everything in its path. His legs ached even now with the weight of the owl he had held up while the fire erupted right below them. His heart beat erratically in his chest as the feeling of betrayal and sadness as the talons of his brother tried to pull him down and claw him, only to miss and have him falling to his doom in the fires below swallowed him up.

 _"Fire is a dangerously beautiful thing,"_ Ezylryb had told him. _"Properly used it can be a fantastic advantage and quiet an alluring sight, but misused it can be a terrible weapon of destruction."_ The flames weren't just the only thing that had taken his brother. It was the fires of hate inside of him that had sent him falling in the first pace.

Soren sighed as he came to the edge of his hollow before he began to take flight towards the branches nearby where they were lighting lanterns and sending them out. Lanterns were common sight to see at the Great Tree. Their warmth and comforting light was a result of the colliers taming the flames and placing them to good use. Others included cooking, reading light and, as of right now, to provide lighted paths for incoming Guardians retiring home.

An owl handed him an unlit lantern. The intricate designs adorning the light object always had him wondering of who had made them, though the craftsmen, colliers and blacksmiths tended to be more-often-than-not anonymous.

A collier passed by him, stopping to offer him a small piece of lit coal from his coal bucket. He searched through the burning embers before quickly selecting one that would suffice quite nicely.

Small flames of yellow, gold and orange sprang up from the small, burning rock. Occasionally, a small slip of blue would appear at the flame's tip, before retreating back into orange as the fire constantly flickered.

He nudged the top opening of the lantern with his talon and deposited the fiery ember into it. Almost instantly, the lantern was all aglow with the brightness of the fire inside. Soren had always marveled at its beauty, it never ceased to amaze him.

A sharp, shrill whistle was called, signaling the release of another wave of lanterns. Several owls beside him released their lanterns and they floated up along with the light, evening breeze. It was an almost mystic sight to watch them gently rise up with the slightest of ease up into the night sky.

 _"This was the closest an owl could be to stars,"_ Gylfie, an elf owl and also his best friend, had told him. She was being trained under the Great Tree's head navigator, Strix Struma, so Gylfie had a strong, profound knowledge when comparing the lanterns to the stars above.

It came to his turn to release his glowing beacon of light. His talons slowly unwrapped from under its base and set the light free. Gradually, it caught onto the wind and rose up to join the others. The gently glow twinkling in his eyes sent a serene, calming feeling through him.

 _"If only Kludd was here to see it,"_ he thought. Despite all that had happened between them, Soren still dearly loved his brother. His eyes fluttered close and he dipped his head solemnly.

 _"Great Glaux in heaven, please. Whether Kludd is still out there or not, let this light show him his way to a better place."_

A single tear leaked out of his eyes, rolled down his face feather and landed with a soft tap on his left foot's front talon. The same exact foot that he had held onto his brother with.

Soren's head slowly rose up again and his eyes gently opened again. A clear, glossy shine of tears had appeared in both of his eyes and it glistened and sparkled with the light coming from the lanterns as they took slow, silent, yet gentle and tranquil flight into the night sky.

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 **I hope you enjoyed reading this, because I enjoyed making it. After a long day of writing two other stories and working on several other, I felt the need to calm down a bit with something relaxful. Thank you for stopping by and reading my story. Please leave a review if you like, feedback is always appreciated. Sincerely, v.t.7**


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